SHANE FILAN
SHANE FILAN
shane
Shane and I are very close. We are both very committed to making this band as successful as we can. We spend ages talking
about songs, and about how the band is getting on. He,s good fun to be with. MARK
With Shane, his character very much depends on his mood. If he's in a good mood he can be absolutely hilarious, but if he's not he just doesn't want to know. His biggest fault is that he's downright lazy. I was once at his house in Sligo and he had a video that was due back.The video store is 50 metres away, but he still got in his car and drove there. It's the same with his mobile phone
. If his phone is in his bag on the other side of the room, he'll ask to borrow my phone rather than bother to get up and fetch his bag. But he's a very generous person and he's very fast to buy a round of drinks. If we go into a bar for just one drink, Shane will always be the one to pay. He's quite happy to spend his money. He's not as extravagant as Kian when it comes to shopping, but he does enjoy it and he gets quite choosy about the clothes he wears. I'll always ask Shane for advice on anything because there's a mutual respect. He's helped me out a few times and we've got a lot of time for each other, especially when it comes to singing. Shane is so talented. I'm convinced music will always be part of his life. Shane can be very, very funny. And he can also be very, very inattentive. Sometimes it takes ages and hours to get his attention. If he's doing one thing, then that's the only thing he's going to do! NICKY
Shane is great and we get on very well, we have a good laugh and he can take a joke.He's pretty cool and very popular with the girls, but he can be quite vain, particularly about his hair. He can't pass a mirror without looking into it. He's quite into clothes, too, but he's got the worst fashion sense out of the whole band. He doesn't have a clue. We're always warning him the fashion police will be after him, so when he arrives in the morning in a dodgy outfit we pretend to go over and handcuff him. He'll happily wear white socks and shoes and jeans and bright colored trousers that don't match his shirt.But the worst ever was when we were in Tenerife to shoot the If I Let You Go video. We had a day off beforehand and were all down at the pool. He came down in a vest, really short shorts, flip-flops with socks, a bum bag tied to his waist - and a pair of shades
. He just looked like a typical tourist, but the worst thing was he thought he looked really cool. It was terrible!Shane Say's
I Never thought that Westlife would still be Highly successful seven years on. My favourite westlife moment was meeting the pope. My favourite westlife tract is Flying Without Wings. My favourite westlife video is Fool Again. What the other guys say about me is that I'm generous and a nice guy! When I'm not working I like to change Nicole,s nappies! My Motto is "everything happens for a reason." I would describe myself as level - headed, generous and romantic. The phase I often use is You Know What I Mean.
shane pop profile
Shane interview in May edition of Sky Magazine
How would you feel about there being a Westlife musical?
I would feel quite good about it, actually. It's something we've talked about, but we would have to take time to consider how it would be done. It could end up being very cheesy and very silly.
Who would play you in a film?
That's a good question. My favourite actor is Tom Cruise, but he doesn't look like me. Leonardo DiCaprio is great, but he doesn't look like me either - whoever wants to play me is fine.
What's your craziest fan experience?
Mark got sent a turnip - a turnip in a box! Why, I don't know. Most of our fans are normal but 1% of them are headcases. You get sent pubic hair.
Which Westlife song are you bored of being asked to perform?
I Have a Dream is probably our least favourite song.
What's the oddest thing that has been thrown on stage?
Someone threw these knickers and they must have been about a size 50. I picked them up and said, 'Who the hell owns these?' It was a big joke on the night and very funny. If we get bras and stuff we usually put them on each other - it's all good fun.
How do you avoid being noticed when you're out and about?
You choose the places you go carefully. If you go to a club in Ireland there's always going to be a hen night. I don't mind having a picture, but sometimes it gets out of hand and you get girls in bunny rabbit suits coming over and jumping all over you!
What's you perfect day off?
Just spending time with my family and playing a bit of golf. I'd like to do both in the same day, preferably somewhere hot. Obviously Ireland isn't that hot. Every day I get up and see my kids and thank God they are healthy and safe. It's really all about family now.
Do you ever catch your family singing your songs?
My daughter Nicole is four and a half and she's singing them all of the time - she literally knows every word of every song on the new album already.
When were you last star-struck?
We met Barack Obama recently, and I was completely star-struck. We met Pope John Paul II before he died, too.
"As a young fellow in Summerhill college, it was always a dream that I never thought would happen. Some people dream about going to college and being a doctor
but for me I dreamt about being in a band. I got my dream and it is still going and I don't forget that for a second". That's how Shane Filan summed up his thoughts on the remarkable Westlife success story as he and the other bandmembers prepare for next week's sell-out Lissadell concert.
Shane puts it all down to the band's choice of music and a solid fan base.
"It's unbelievable you know, after 12 years or whatever, it's kind of hard to believe we are still going strong every year. Our popularity keeps going strong and every album we release does well and tickets still sell.
"I think we have come to the stage with fans now and have reached a certain point where if you release good music and stuff, the fans will stay with you.
"We now have a very solid fan base around the world and we still have the same kind of fan base and they have kinda grown up with us and obviously we are getting a lot older audience now as well."
"At concerts around the world you notice fans that are still there with us growing up and some of them have kids now, married, and then you know you have the mums and dads that come then it's more of a family event. That's the secret of a long journey for Westlife, we just have that solid fan base that just sticks with us".
Looking ahead, when asked where he would see himself and Westlife in ten year's time, Shane said: "We would still obviously like to be in Westlife, we look at Take That now and they have a massive comeback. They're obviously doing great stuff at the moment and they're 9 or 10 years older than us.
"They were the band we looked up to
when we were 16 or 17. They were our age doing what we're doing. It's great to see them at that age being so strong. And obviously Robbie's back with them now and it just shows you we can do it when we are 39 or 40 years old. It's just a matter of getting the songs right". On the reasons for keeping going, Shane said: "We enjoy it, of course we do, we wouldn't do it if we didn't enjoy it. I think as a band we have done so well now that if we weren't enjoying it anymore we wouldn't have to do it.
"We have had a lot of success but for us it's all about the next
album and the next single. It's great fun you know as a band. We have grown up together as people, we have gotten married, had babies and different stuff and we are a very close kind of group of friends now as well as band mates". Summerhill boys still friends
DESPITE his rise to international fame, Shane and his fellow band members
succeeded in keeping close to their roots. Shane has many friends from his days in Summerhill college. On Friday last he attended the wedding of one of his best friends
. "I had a great bunch or friends at Summerhill, a lot of fellas I know to this day; I still see them". Shane found himself going directly into showbusiness after Summerhill. When asked if he thought about what his life might have been like if he had taken a different route back then, Shane said: "I suppose you always think back of what it would have been like but I'm a firm believer in what's meant to be is meant to be.
"Sometimes you think things are great but then you have bad days or whatever's meant to be in your life, that's the path you're meant to take and for me it was to be in Westlife.
"I didn't get to go to college like everyone else and have the mad years away and live that side of life. I didn't have a rag week or any of them kind of things. Small stuff, but for me it was all about dreaming to be where I am now, in a band like this and touring the world".
Westlife's Shane: Band thought we were being 'Punk'd' by McFadden
SHOCK: Westlife’s Shane
WESTLIFE insist that Brian McFadden will not be joining them for their last ever tour next year. The band played an intimate
invite gig in Dublin's 02 on Thursday night. Mark Feehily says the band will end their days as a quartet and Brian will not be a part of their final tour. "It's not happening and was never happening [Brian taking part in the tour], even though everyone has asked," he insists.
Shane adds: "Brian left because he didn't like being in the group.
"It shocked us beyond belief. "We actually thought we were being Punk'd on that MTV show when he said he wanted to leave.
"I was like 'you're s***ing me, why the f** would you want to leave Westlife?.
"We were all getting along so well, but we didn't have a clue what was going on in his personal life, his marriage
, any of it." He also reveals some of the bizarre 'presents' they have got off fans.
"Mark got sent a turnip with all the dirt on it," he laughs.
Pubic
"Then at a signing we were given a pubic hair taped to an envelope and also a used tampon in a box."
Shane Filan moves to England to boost solo career after Westlife
13/01/2012
Shane Filan has moved to England as he prepares to kickstart his solo career.
The Westlife star, 32, his wife Gillian, and three children Nicole, Patrick and Shane, moved from Sligo to Surrey during the Christmas holidays.
Although they lived for several months at a time in the Georgian-style house at Cobham, the family has decided to make it a more permanent home while Shane develops his solo career after Westlife break up following Croke Park concerts in June.
Eldest child Nicole, six, is already attending a school near the home Shane bought three years ago.
A close family friend said he and Gillian have no intention of breaking their links with Sligo and will return often and will retain their sprawling home outside the town.
The friend added: “They adore Sligo and will always regard it as their home. But Shane has realised London is the best place to be for his solo career.
"Cobham is in the London commuter-belt. He has spent so much time on the road around the world with Westlife. He wants to spend more time with his family so he and Gillian decided the best thing for now would be to move to their home outside London.
“He can concentrate on his new career and not be away from his family so much.”
Shane and Gillian can take their children to a number of parks near their new home and also to nearby Chessington World of Adventures. He can also indulge his passion for golf at Wentworth, where he has played several times.
Louis Walsh, currently on holiday at his Miami apartment until February, has already announced he will continue to manage Shane and has predicted he will be the most successful solo artist of Westlife after the band splits next summer.
Louis said he could see Shane having a career like big band singer Michael Buble.
He added: “Shane is going to be a big artist. I will only manage someone if I believe in them.”
nicky 
